Shloka 10
उमापतिर्विरूपाक्ष: स्कन्द: सेनापतिस्तथा । विशाखो हुतभुग् वायुश्चन्द्रसूर्यों प्रभाकरी
umāpatir virūpākṣaḥ skandaḥ senāpatis tathā | viśākho hutabhug vāyuś candrasūryau prabhākarī ||
Bhīṣma said: “May Umāpati (Śiva), the odd-eyed Virūpākṣa; Skanda, the commander of the gods’ hosts; Viśākha; Agni, the consumer of oblations; Vāyu, the wind; and the light-bearing Moon and Sun protect us.” In this chapter’s larger litany, Bhīṣma invokes a vast lineage of deities, sages, rivers, tīrthas, mountains, and cosmic powers as guardians—framing protection not as mere force, but as alignment with the sacred order that sustains life and dharma.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Protection is sought through remembrance and reverence of the sustaining powers of the cosmos—fire, wind, sun, moon, and the great deities—implying that safety and well-being arise from living in harmony with dharma and the sacred order, not merely from human strength.
Bhīṣma is reciting an invocation (a protective litany) naming major deities and cosmic forces. This verse is one segment of a longer enumeration in which he calls upon divine and natural powers to guard the listener, situating the discourse within a ritual-ethical atmosphere of sanctification and protection.